Jon Green, a New Jersey native and certified financial planner, has managed D.J. Stables, one of the largest racing and breeding operations in the country, for more than 30 years. They have won two Eclipse awards, more than 150 stakes races, and sold more than $90 million worth of horses at public auctions.
Their most recent success came when homebred Nitrogen won the Alabama Stakes (G1) Aug. 16 at Saratoga Race Course. They also campaign fan-favorite Sandman, winner of this year's Arkansas Derby (G1), with St Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds, and CJ Stables.
Green spoke with BloodHorse about the future of Nitrogen, horses entered in the upcoming Keeneland September Sale and their strategic reduction being offered this fall at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
BloodHorse: How did you get your start in the Thoroughbred industry?
Jon Green: Back in the early '80s, we had a neighbor of ours that was in horse racing, and he had a couple of claimers at Monmouth Park. The short story is that we went to Monmouth one summer day, and my dad had popped his Achilles tendon, so he couldn't really move around very well. We went from the paddock, and they parked us right into the winner's circle. We didn't know any better; so we're like, 'Oh, great, we get to watch it from here.' The horse won, we got to go get our picture taken, and we got to hold the trophy. Driving home, my dad turned to me and said, 'Did you have fun?' I said, 'Yeah. I won 10 bucks on the horse, we got a hot dog, and I got to hold the trophy. What could be better?' He said, 'Yeah, and if they could win races, imagine what we could do.'
He pored over the IRS tax code as it related to the horse industry. My dad's a CPA by trade, so he spent the whole summer looking over the tax code and realized that the horse industry is very unique with regard to depreciation, hobby loss rules, and some of the other unique rules. He thought it would be a great way for us as a family to get involved in owning a piece of sports without having to beg, borrow, and steal billions of dollars to buy the Mets or the Yankees.
BH: Where is your operation at currently? How many horses do you own between broodmares and horses in training?
JG: We have more than 200 horses between our racing operation and our breeding operation. They're racing and training in nine different states and in Canada and Ireland. We're really a multinational operation, and we found that there's opportunities at each of these different race locations.
My job as general manager is, I know it's cliché, but it really is a 24/7, 365-day job because I'm always on the lookout for value. In this industry, where analytics are becoming much more involved, it's harder to find that value because there are so many smart businesspeople doing similar things that we are.
I think that our 40-year history has shown that if you keep working at it and keep looking for opportunities, they will avail themselves.
BH: What prompted the decision to hold a reduction at the upcoming Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale?
JG: This strategy of the curated reduction really started over a year ago. We basically take our investments in the industry as just that. ... We try to anticipate the market—both the worldwide economy and the microeconomics of our industry. About a year ago, we were just getting out-run on some of these top mares and yearlings. It made us realize that the top of the market, especially, is starving for inventory.
Just like we run most businesses, we try to read trends. We felt like the high-end pedigrees were needed in the marketplace. There are so many more people coming into the business, and they're looking to spend seven figures on horses, and there just isn't that top-end marketplace. So, we thought this would be a great opportunity for us to accomplish two things: one is to give the market turnkey opportunities for young mares that are in foal to some of the top stallions in the country, and also allow us to take that money and buy some of the higher-end horses that we've been shut out from.
This isn't something that we're doing on an annual basis. This isn't something that we anticipate doing again in a couple of years. This is a one-time opportunity that we feel like the market is going to gravitate towards, and we then can take those sales proceeds and buy Book 1 horses or summer sale broodmares and continue on with our program.
BH: You have worked on developing your broodmare band for several years. What should buyers expect to see in the sale?
JG: I think the most important thing is that they're going to be able to buy ready-made mares that are in foal to some of the top stallions in the world. We have mares in there that are in foal to Curlin, Nyquist, Not This Time, Vekoma, Medaglia d'Oro, and then some young stallions like Flightline and Life Is Good.
We really feel that if we were looking for mares to buy, these would be the type of horses we would normally gravitate towards. I think the market is going to be very pleased with the opportunities they're going to see. Aside from the mares, we also have some young fillies that we're putting into the sale like Bullet, who won two of her first three stakes races. She's a really well-bred War Front filly, and Winterberry, who was the favorite in this week's Wonder Wheel Stakes.
It's Witchcraft. She was a $1.1 million Tapit filly that is stakes-placed (and) is going to be in the sale. If the market genuinely wants to have something at the higher end, they're going to be able to find it with this reduction.
BH: Tell me about the yearlings you've purchased so far this year.
JG: We've purchased 11 yearlings, and spent roughly $3 million on those yearlings. We anticipate going to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale and it's business as usual for us. Over the past couple of years, we've bought between 12-15 yearlings at the September sale, and there's no reason why that's going to change.
Our goal is to go to the November sales—(Fasig-Tipton's) the Night of the Stars sale and the Keeneland November Sale, and continue to buy mares that are at that upper echelon of the marketplace.
BH: Will you be focusing on fillies again at the upcoming Keeneland September sale?
JG: Normally, our game plan is that we buy well-bred fillies, run them through our racing program, and then retire them at the end in our broodmare band. That's one of the reasons why we've accumulated so many well-bred fillies over the past 10 years is because of that program.
I think that's our comfort zone. That's what we like to do. We have a racing and a breeding program, so it fits very well with our goals. Over the past couple of years, we've gone a little bit out of our comfort zone, and bought horses like Ewing (for $585,000), a Knicks Go colt that we partnered up to get with West Point (Thoroughbreds).
Obviously, Sandman is the most famous one ($1.2 million) with partners (St Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds, and CJ Stables). So, if there's a colt that is at the top of our list, and we need to induce some of our friends and partners to come in on that horse, we'll do it. But our comfort range is really to buy well-bred fillies, campaign them through Mark Casse's program, and then hopefully get black type and rinse and repeat.
BH: Speaking of well-bred fillies, what about recent Alabama Stakes winner Nitrogen's success?
JG: Nitrogen has always been very special to us. She's a homebred. My mom and I actually did the mating analysis to come up with Medaglia d'Oro for our mare Tiffany Case. And being that my mom passed about two years ago, it just adds a little bit extra emotion to having Nitrogen really exceed our expectations. It's been a wonderful run for her—not only on the turf, but now on the dirt as well. We're very excited to campaign her against older mares in the Spinster (Stakes) in about a month.
BH: Do you plan on racing her as a 4-year-old?
JG: Our intentions are to run her next year. Our intentions are definitely to run her as a 4-year-old and, and we're doing it for a few reasons. One, she's as sound as any horse that we've had in the barn. She is a throwback as far as her soundness and her willingness to train, which is really exciting for us. But also when you have a filly of that caliber, it's harder to replace a grade 1 race filly than it is a Book 1 mare. Because she's a homebred and because we have the family—Tiffany Case and we have Nitrogen's half sister, a Gun Runner filly that we named Sniper—we want to continue to lengthen the pedigrees of all of those horses.
Honestly, if Nitrogen wasn't at the top of the game that she is, we may have second thoughts. But it's almost like we owe it to her, and we owe it to the industry to continue to race her as as a 4-year-old. She's really a gift that we all can enjoy.
BH: Where would you like to see your business go in the upcoming years? What are your goals?
JG: I'd like to see us have about 100-150 horses instead of 200, and have them continue to be in the top programs, have the mares be bred to the top stallions in the world, and have people look at our maroon-and-white silks and equate that with quality and integrity.
As long as I can continue to do that, as general manager—continue to produce horses that are adding value to the industry—then I love what I do, and I want to continue to do it.
BH: DJ Stable has a group of horses entered in the September sale. Do you sell all your horses each year? What is this group like?
JG: Our game plan every year is to put all of our horses in a sale, some as weanlings, but most of them as yearlings. We have 19 that are entered in the Keeneland September sale.
Short of an anomaly like Nitrogen that happens once every decade, that's our game plan to put them in the sale and let the market dictate what they're worth. Some of them we bring home, but the majority of them go on to different programs and hopefully excel within those programs.
I'm very excited about the Justify—Earth Strike colt (Hip 314) primarily because we plucked Earth Strike out of Europe. We actually went there with the goal of buying a mare like her. As you look at her pedigree, it's about as bulletproof as they come. We brought her over here, campaigned her for a little bit, and we got her black type at the Fair Grounds. We have just been absolutely floored with how good her foals have looked. This Justify colt in particular is one that we're very excited for the market to have an opportunity to buy.
The Life Is Good—Polish a Diamond (Hip 466) is a half sister to a couple of black-type horses and is from the family of Life Is Good. We actually wanted to try to re-influence the female family, because it's so strong within the stallion and the mare. That's kind of a throwback look when you inbreed to those blue-hen mares, which is what we're trying to accomplish with this filly. I think the market is going to be very excited about that filly, especially because she's from Life Is Good's first crop.
Then Vixen's half sister by Mitole (Hip 1786) is in the sale. I'm very proud of the group that we are offering here.
BH: What are you expecting from this sale and the future of the industry?
JG: The thing I'm most excited about is that it's not just the top of the market that is increasing. It's the entire industry. So, the $20,000 horses have been selling for $30,000-$40,000 and the $50,000 horses are bringing $75,000-$100,000. So, it's the high tide raising all boats. To me, that's the sign of a healthy industry—not just the top of the markets going crazy and everyone else is kind of sucking wind. The past year or so, if you look at the numbers, the median and the average overall are up. That's a really healthy sign.
